


Mountains May Crumble, Gibraltar May Tumble (They're Only Made of Clay)

by LadyChi



Series: The Soundtrack of Our Lives is an Old Jazz Record [5]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012), Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-31
Updated: 2013-01-31
Packaged: 2017-11-27 15:24:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/663551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyChi/pseuds/LadyChi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Title from the classic Louis Armstrong/Ella Fitzgerald duet, "Our Love is Here to Stay". </p><p>The one where: Darcy spends too much time on Tumblr,  Natasha may be having trouble coping with the stress of having her ex-boyfriend suddenly pop up alive and a little mentally scarred (but probably not), Pepper gives a master class in Modern Media Theory, Darcy and Steve have a fight (and then have sex!), Jane and Thor talk (after having sex!) and our plot moves along as fast as it can.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mountains May Crumble, Gibraltar May Tumble (They're Only Made of Clay)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to everyone who sent gentle pokes my way -- I'm sorry this installment took so long. I got a distressing critique back from my original work and it sort of killed my desire to write... uh... at all. So be kind, if you please.

  
Darcy had been working. Well -- she’d been valiantly trying to work, at any rate. She found being Tony Stark’s attention required a will of iron, the capability to ignore a buzzing phone, and the ability to ignore Tony himself. She’d been fighting her computer (Excel was her mortal enemy. As a matter of fact, all of Microsoft was going fucking _down_ , first chance she got), her cell phone, and a headache for three hours when the first thump caught her attention. There was her boss, with a stack of magazines, which he dropped one at a time onto the surface of her desk. They had headlines like:   
  
CAPTAIN AMERICA AND LADY-FRIEND STROLL NEAR STARK TOWER!   
  
JUST-RELEASED: PHOTOS OF THE CAP AND HIS MYSTERIOUS FRIEND!  
  
WHO IS THE STAR-SPANGLED MAN’S NEWEST STAR?  
  
Tony chewed a stick of gum and watched her face as she absorbed everything. “You’ve got to admit, that last one’s a bit of a reach.”   
  
“Tony, seriously... what _is_ this?” Darcy’s desk was now covered in tabloids with her face on every cover.  
  
“It’s nothing, really, just that you happen to be in more magazines than I do these days. There’s no accounting for the taste of the general public, I tell you.”   
  
Darcy rolled her eyes and began to stack the magazines into a pile. “If I could do anything about it, I would.”   
  
“I just wanted to tell you -- they’ll figure out who you are soon enough. They always do. Some ‘well-meaning’ college friend will give out all of your information -- true or not. They’ll call old elementary school teachers. They’ll stalk you to and from work.” Tony crossed his arms. “Life’s not going to be fun for the next little chunk of time.”   
  
Darcy sighed. “I know.”   
  
“Here’s what I want to do for you.” He sat next to her desk, one leg crossed over the other. “I’d like for you to spend some time with Pepper today.”   
  
“Pepper?”   
  
“Yes. She’s got more experience than anyone with dealing with these people. You won’t find anyone better in the world at finding an image and selling it.”   
  
“I don’t --”  
  
“Darce. You’re going to need to find an image. And you’re going to need to sell it. Cause Lord knows those fucking vultures aren’t going to be interested in the real you. And as sick as it is, the last thing you need in this vulnerable stage of your relationship is the rest of the world rooting _against_ you, so. Talk to Pepper, yeah?”   
  
“I guess I can try and get in with her, but --”   
  
“You’ve got a three o’clock appointment,” Tony said firmly, getting up to leave. “Don’t be late.”   
  
“Tony.” Darcy cleared her throat. “I -- just... you know. Thanks.”   
  
“You know me. I’m a sucker for young love. Can’t let you two dingbats walk over a landmine if I could help it.”   
  
“Well -- it’s appreciated.”   
  
With an awkward smile and a heat on his cheeks that she might have called a blush on the face of anyone else, Tony left her office.  
  
**  
  
“Oh. My. _God_.”   
  
Jane was stretched out -- arms over her head, hair tousled in every direction. Her mascara had smeared under one eyelid, but she was grinning like a very satisfied feline as Thor worked his way up her body.   
  
“You are satisfied?”  
  
Jane laughed from her belly. “For the moment.”   
  
Thor bent his head and kissed her, and she could taste herself on his lips and it was somehow right... more right than anything she’d ever felt before -- hormones, she decided. Dopamine and whatever else her nervous system was shooting through her body at the speed of light to reinforce the idea that sex with a demi-god was a good idea.   
  
A really good idea.  
  
A really good idea three times over.  
  
Three and a half times... four, maybe, if she were being generous, and... she nearly purred... she was indeed feeling generous. Thor’s massive hands were tangled in her hair, and she savored the feeling of his surprisingly-adept large fingers gently untangling the mess their earlier excursions had made of it.   
  
“I missed you,” she found herself saying. And then nearly slapped a hand over her mouth, because clingy was so not what she was going for.  
  
“And I you,” Thor said, easily but not without meaning. “I have found these last few months... trying.”   
  
Jane rolled over to face him, coaxing a lock of his hair out of his eyes. “Is everything all right?”  
  
“Everything is far from it,” Thor said, though a smile crossed his face, “the past few hours being the exception.”   
  
“Of course,” Jane said with a grin that felt a bit silly. More than a bit silly. Just a stupid expression on her face because _he missed her_ and _she had made him feel okay_. Felt downright juvenile. But she couldn’t really turn it off.   
  
Thor’s face grew serious. “My father keeps my brother locked in a cage which burns him, and then, at rise of the moon, he is allowed to heal, only to burn again. I bring... brought him his food every day, and I ask of him whether he will repent... But there is a broken fool where once my brother stood. And I find it...” Thor’s beautiful language stopped and he sighed, looking for a word. “I find it to be extraordinarily difficult. What you have seen of my brother on this world... that’s not the Loki I grew up with. For what he’s done, there is no punishment severe enough. And yet...”   
  
Jane pushed Thor onto his back with one hand and laid on top of him (something he swore he found soothing), laying her cheek to his chest. “It’s hard to watch your brother hurting.”   
  
“Heimdell believed it would be good for me to have a respite. To attain some, uh... perspective.”   
  
Jane laid her hand flat on Thor’s chest. “I’m very glad you’re here. The last time you were on Earth, we didn’t get to see each other.”   
  
Thor stiffened and coughed. “I know. I am sorry. It was...”  
  
“I understand,” Jane said, closing her eyes. “Just, next time... give a girl a phone call, okay?”   
  
Thor nodded. “I can remember that.”   
  
“Good.”   
  
Jane’s eyes were slowly sinking shut when Thor shifted underneath of her. “What was Lady Darcy doing with the Captain?”   
  
“They’re dating,” Jane said easily. “It’s a surprisingly good match, actually.”   
  
Thor blinked. “The Captain seems a worthy man.”   
  
“Some would argue he’s the worthiest.”  
  
Thor snorted, but said nothing, and Jane took that as permission to go to sleep.  
  
**  
  
Bucky heard the man coming -- though he was quieter than most in this supposedly-covert building. He had nothing to do all day but catalogue the different sounds around him, to learn the strides of the agents who frequently visited, and the ones who pushed his food in through the hole in the wrought-iron door. He had immediately learned to recognize Steve’s confident stride, and the steady click of Darcy’s office-heels, and the shuffle of her training tennis shoes. Phil Coulson walked with competence and confidence, and Fury, on the rare occasion he stopped by, seemed to communicate righteousness in every mood.   
  
This was something different. This man was something different.   
  
“I figured I’d come down and say hello,” the man said in a soft voice, a little rough underneath and infused with exhaustion. “I know what it’s like to feel like a walking experiment, to be treated like that.”   
  
“So you came down to... sympathize?” How terribly... _American_.  
  
“No.” The man approached Bucky’s bullet-proof window and stuck his hands in the pocket of his well-worn khaki pants. “Way I figure it, sympathy’s probably the last thing you need. It’s liable to piss you off. Least that’s what it does to me.” The corner of the man’s mouth lifted. “Of course, just about everything pisses me off. So take that with a grain of salt.”  
  
Bucky got up off of his cot and approached the window. “I’m Bucky. Bucky Barnes. They tell me.”   
  
“I know. I’m Bruce Banner.” Bruce lifted a shoulder. “When I’m not a giant green rage monster, that is.”   
  
“You’re... the Hulk. I’ve been briefed. Somewhere. Sometime.” His head ached with a sudden sharp fierceness.  
  
“I wouldn’t try to access those memories just yet.” Bruce rocked back on his heels. “I’m no neuroscientist, but the ones we have on staff say your brain looks like Swiss cheese. And that’s being generous. You’re lucky to be alive right now.”   
  
“Hm.”   
  
“Turn of phrase, sorry.” Bruce looked off to the side. “I just wanted you to know -- Tony’s not sleeping. A lot of us over at Stark... we’re working over time. We’re going to figure out how to get you back.”   
  
“Uh, thanks.”   
  
“Thank your friend Steve. He asked nicely. And I don’t many folks who work in the lab who can turn down the Cap.”   
  
“It’s the doe eyes, I’m telling you.” Bucky chuckled. “Used to be killer on the nuns when we were growing up. Kid got away with murder.”   
  
Bruce’s cell phone chirped insistently. “I’m sorry. I’ve got to take this. Tony’s a touch paranoid. If I don’t pick up he panics.”   
  
And away he went, and Bucky laid back down on his cot, clutching the hope he’d somehow found to his chest like a stolen teddy bear.  
  
**  
  
“Come at me.”   
  
“No. I really would rather not.”   
  
Nat gritted her teeth in frustration. “I’m giving you an order, soldier. That’s what you automatons respond to, right? Come. Fucking. At. Me.”   
  
The new S.H.I.E.L.D. recruit looked, panicked, at the instructor of his self-defense training. Agent Smith (swore up and down it was her real name) just shrugged, as if to say _I’m not pissing her off_.  
  
“No offense but can I possibly attack someone less... you know... murder...y?”   
  
Natasha grinned. “I can assure you that you will be regularly defending yourselves from things much more... _murderous_ than I am. So man up, recruit. Come at me.”   
  
With a banshee-like roar which made Natasha roll her eyes, he came at her with no degree of grace, a wild shot in the dark. She quickly sidestepped him and knocked him flat on his ass and into dreamland.   
  
“Now, children. What did he do wrong?” Nat crossed her arms and waited for the answers to flood in. She patiently worked her way through the class, their attacks bolder and slightly more competent as time went on. She even managed to work up a light sweat, and counted that as a victory.   
  
“Natasha.”   
  
Of course he was waiting for her. Agent Coulson seemed unusually invested in her these days -- showing up at the classes she got suckered into presenting at, finding her at the S.H.I.E.L.D cafeteria, chattering at her about Captain America collectibles and disinterested cellists. Nat tamped down on the rising irritation, reminding herself that one of the side effects of friendship was concern.   
  
“Phil.”   
  
“Tony and his guys think they might have a breakthrough.”   
  
Natasha let one eyebrow creep up her brow. “Oh?”   
  
“Yes. They’re doing some tests... though of course, it’s difficult to test for these sorts of things... but they think they can induce a state, through electrocution, which will sort of... ‘reset’ him.”   
  
“They’re going to... electrocute him until he remembers who he is?”  
  
Natasha was no scientist. But this sounded like a terrible idea to her.  
  
“Well, the way Tony says it, it sounds much nicer...”  
  
“I imagine so.”   
  
“Like I said, they’re doing some more tests. So. You know. There’s hope.”   
  
Natasha rolled her eyes.   
  
“Also: please stop scaring the recruits and the interns.” Phil stuck his hands in his pocket. “It wasn’t entirely necessary to knock that boy into unconsciousness.”   
  
“Here’s the problem with our relationship, Phil: You show up. You ruin my fun.”  
  
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Phil shrugged. “Seriously, though...”   
  
Natasha laughed, and walked away, hearing Phil mutter under her breath as she did so.  
  
“Yeah, I had a feeling that was a lost cause...”   
  
**  
  
“I was told I would find you here, my star-clad friend,” Thor boomed, his voice carrying easily over the boxing gym where Steve was steadily working his way through a pile of bags -- not something he did every day, anymore, now that he was significantly less frustrated and a little more at home here, but he found with everything going on that he needed to make something fly.  
  
Steve paused in his workout to turn and grin. “Thor! Good to see you!”   
  
“What are you doing? This is a curious activity. Do these bags not hit back?”   
  
“No,” Steve said, biting back his smile. “They don’t.”   
  
“Do they explode?” Thor’s face was the picture of confusion.  
  
“No.”   
  
“Wherein lies the appeal?”   
  
“I... find it meditative.”   
  
“To hit a bag over and over again? You find this soothing?”   
  
Steve shrugged. “I guess so.”   
  
“Interesting.” Thor crossed his arms. “Would you not find it as soothing to hit me over and over again?”   
  
Steve tilted his head to the side. “Are you uh... gonna hit back?”   
  
“It would not sporting, otherwise.”   
  
“The last time we did this, didn’t we destroy a large portion of a, you know... forest?”   
  
“Part of the challenge would, of course, be control.”   
  
Steve grinned.   
  
**  
  
  
Darcy had always been strong-willed. But most of the people that knew her knew that fierce wit and stubborn head were really good cover-ups of a scared little girl, and so Darcy had to fight the urge, every time she was summoned to see the Pepper Potts, to feel like she’d been asked to the principal’s office. Pepper had it so together, no matter how much Darcy prepped, she never felt like she was ready.   
  
At least, until she walked through the door. And then Pepper’s charm and the reminder that she was like, a real, actual person, would calm the screaming elementary-schooler inside her body and she could function again.   
  
It was just that those thirty seconds before she remembered all of that could be intensely awkward.  
  
“Darcy! You’re always right on time!” Pepper stepped out of her office. “Sorry -- Danvers it out of the office today. Sick cat, poor thing.”   
  
Darcy raised an eyebrow.   
  
“Come on in. Do you want something? I’ve got... oh, I think I’ve got just about everything. Soda, water, tea, coffee... booze.”   
  
Darcy laughed. “No thanks. I’m fine.”  
  
“So. You and Steve are moving in together.”  
  
It was a good thing that Darcy had turned down the offer of a drink, because she might have spit it out. “Where do you get your information? You’re better-connected than like, the fucking New York Times.”   
  
“It helps to be friends with the Captain, when it comes to getting information about him,” Pepper said, a small smile on her face. “He asked what I thought. Before he asked you.”   
  
“He was that nervous?” Darcy grinned. “That’s freaking adorable.”   
  
“I often find him so,” Pepper said, sitting down next to Darcy on the couch.   
  
“Before we start doing... whatever it is we’re going to do, I just wanted to say thanks,” Darcy said, looking down. “I uh... I want Steve and I to actually have a shot, you know? And I grew up in the internet age, so I think I’ve got like, some level of expectation of how this is all going to down and what our lives are going to be like, but then I think I’ve got no freaking clue. Anyway, the point is, you and Tony go out of your way to be nice to Steve and I, and... I just wanted to say thanks.”   
  
“It’s no trouble at all,” Pepper said, crossing one leg over the other. “Seriously. I’ve been looking forward to this meeting all day -- corporate tedium is about to drive me nuts. Which is a sentence I never believed I would actually utter, but there it is.”   
  
It wasn’t that Darcy was dumb -- she’d worked forty hours a week during her undergrad at a shitty retail job. She’d waited tables in the summer to bookend her weekends, and she’d still managed to escape Culver University with something a little better than a three-oh and she was proud of that. But she didn’t have the kind of insight Pepper did -- at least, not yet. And she listened to the master open up her backpack of tricks and explain how she’d kept Tony Stark on the good side of the press all of those years -- years when, by rights, they probably should have been more harsh to the self-absorbed genius.   
  
“So basically,” Pepper continued her lecture, “you just have to accept that for as long as this lasts, you’re going to be playing a part. A version of yourself that’s a bit more polished than everyday Darcy or everyday Steve. In Tony’s case, he was professional but quick-mouthed. The press expected him to be sarcastic and self-absorbed... and yes, he is those things, but he’s moreso those things when the camera is on.” Pepper stood. “I think I’m going to get a glass of wine.”  
  
Darcy swallowed. “I think that’s a great idea.”   
  
Pepper paged for the wine, and sat back down. “The key to success with the media is not to pretend to be something you aren’t, because they can spot a fake a mile away...”   
  
“So I shouldn’t pretend to be nice.”   
  
Pepper raised an eyebrow. “I think you’re nice. You can certainly be nice. You just can’t pretend to be syrupy-sweet. They’ll know that’s not genuine.”   
  
“Okay.”   
  
“The way it works now, the media is very likely going to be part of your life. You’ve just got to make a few decisions about what things you’ll voluntarily let them know. Which areas of your life are strictly off-limits. Whatever boundaries you set, Tony and I are willing to use whatever clout we’ve built up with the guys to help make sure they respect those boundaries... as much as they can.”   
  
“Okay.” The door opened and one of the office staff appeared with a bottle of wine, two glasses and a corkscrew. Darcy watched as Pepper efficiently took care of pouring the wine and reached out a hand.  “Wow.”  
  
“I know. It’s a lot to absorb. It’s a lot to think about while you’re just starting out, but these are the kinds of decisions that you have to make early. Because once you open a door with these people, it’s nearly impossible to close it if you change your mind.”   
  
Darcy nodded.   
  
The same staffer who’d brought in the wine quickly stuck her head back in the room. “Uh, Miss Potts?”   
  
“Yes, Jane?”   
  
“There’s something going on in the training rooms Mr. Stark built for the Avengers Initiative that uh... we think you should know about.”   
  
“Oh?”   
  
“It looks like Thor and that Captain America guy are trying to kill each other.”   
  
Darcy blinked. “Well. That seems unlikely.”   
  
Pepper smiled. “Shall we go see what’s going on?”   
  
**  
  
Sweat poured from every inch of his body. They’d been steadily beating on each other for well over an hour, a study in endurance. And neither of them had given up their peripheral awareness, so when the exhaustion had set in, but the crowd had gathered, they both dug their heels in and fought on.   
  
“Impressive, Captain!” Thor boomed as Steve managed to avoid a blow.   
  
“Thanks,” Steve said, still breathing easily through sheer force of will. “We should have rigged a points system or something.”   
  
“Steve!” Darcy’s voice cut through the crowd. “What are you guys up to?”   
  
“Having a bit of a tumble, Lady Darcy!” Thor relaxed, beaming at her. “There is no one Earth, and indeed in Asgard, who hits with the power of Steve! It is invigorating!”  
  
Darcy looked around the crowd of people frantically texting and Tweeting and clicking pictures on their cell phones and very nearly sighed.   
  
“Perhaps we should make the Captain’s gym private-access only from now on,” Pepper said, pulling out her cell phone to make a note on it.   
  
Agent Coulson appeared, seemingly out of the shadows. “Images of the Captain and Thor have appeared on all of the social media sites. I’m told there are... JIFs?”  
  
“.GIFS,” Darcy corrected, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’m uh... told it’s pronounced guh-if.”   
  
“Obviously this is a breach of security that we plan to take very seriously,” Agent Coulson said, raising his voice so all of the sheepish employees of Stark Industries and SHIELD could overhear. “In this day and age it’s easy to uh... Tweet enthusiastically. Or so I’m told. All I know is, if I were involved in posting an image to such a website, I’d take it down immediately. Before Natasha Romanov tracks you down and reminds you of the importance of secrecy. I’m told she explains such things... pointedly.”   
  
Darcy snickered.   
  
“I think we’re done here anyway,” Steve said, not looking sheepish or amused. And he was using his Captain tone of voice. Darcy bit down on her lip. Whatever Steve was thinking, he wasn’t pleased. He nodded his farewells, taking off for the locker rooms.  “Thor. Agent.”   
  
Darcy followed, ignoring the catcalls and discreeting texting going on behind her as she opened the locker room door. “Steve?”   
  
Steve poked his head around a wall of lockers, and Darcy caught enough of a view to determine that he was shirtless. “Down, girl,” she muttered to herself. There was just something about Steve barechested that made her fingers... itchy and restless.   
  
“I thought the sign said this was a men’s area.”   
  
“Fuck the signs,” Darcy said, waving a hand. “What if you don’t label yourself a man? But you have the equipment? or what if you do, and you don’t? Where are you supposed to go, then? The signs are inconsiderate.”   
  
Steve raised an eyebrow. “Spending a lot of time on that website again, I see.”   
  
“Social justice is no laughing matter, Steve!”   
  
“Oh, I believe you.” Steve shook his head. “I just don’t think that’s really why you barged in here.”   
  
“You’re right.” Darcy steeled herself. “I barged in here because you looked like you were mulling something over.”   
  
“I’m not allowed to think?”   
  
“Whoa. Not what I meant at all.” Darcy took a step back. “I’m just trying to help, Steve, that’s all. I know sometimes you like to bounce things off of people.”   
  
“You were in a meeting today. With Pepper Potts.”   
  
Darcy raised an eyebrow. “Yes, I was.”   
  
“Why?”  
  
She sighed and waved a hand. “Tony and Pepper were concerned about the treatment I was getting in the media. They thought it might be...”   
  
“You were getting? Or we were getting?”   
  
“Both.” Darcy found a seat on one of the wooden benches and sat cross-legged, inadvertently taking a big whiff of eau de locker room in the process. Something which, surprisingly, hadn’t changed all that much since middle school. Sweat and moderately-priced but overpowering perfume. Yum. “They were concerned about both of us.”   
  
“Yet they didn’t pick up the phone and call me. You didn’t pick up a phone and call me to let me know about this.”   
  
“No. I did not.” Darcy shifted. “I’m sorry.”   
  
“If there’s going to be... a problem with the two of us, I want in on it. I didn’t get involved with you so that you could handle things for me.” Steve bunched his fists. “I had handlers in the war. People who … adjusted things. Kept me happy. Kept me calm. And I don’t want that, Darcy. I didn’t want it then and sure as fuck don’t want it now. I don’t want someone to make my gym private without asking me. I don’t want someone to get in trouble for taking pictures of something they thought was really cool. I don’t want to be that guy, Darcy. That’s not what I signed up for.”   
  
“Okay. The next time Tony and Pepper offer unasked for advice, I will let you know.” Darcy looked down at the ground. “I’m... sorry. That was bitchy. You’re upset, and I’m getting bitchy, and this is really fucking awkward because there are probably four hundred and thirty-seven people outside this door with their ears pressed to it, just wondering if we’re going to break up or if I’m secretly keeping your balls in a jar or something.”   
  
Steve grit his teeth. “Darcy.”   
  
“Steven.”   
  
She could practically see Steve count to ten in his head. “Can we please just... make decisions about us together?”  
  
“That seems fair. And you know... rational.”   
  
“I try to be.” Steve bent his head.   
  
“Here’s the thing,” Darcy said, getting off the bench and crossing the room to lay her hands on his shoulders, tilting her head up to see his face. “I like... really, really want make-up sex. Now. And there are, as previously mentioned...”   
  
“A bunch of busybodies with their ears pressed to the door?” Steve grinned. “I bet we could completely shock them with our prowess.”   
  
Darcy beamed back at him. “Imagine the tweets! ‘I thought the porn I watched last night was good!’”   
  
“‘Captain America MUST be a god!”   
  
“OOH.” Darcy crossed her arms. “You think THAT’S what they’d come away with, huh?”   
  
“You’re a screamer. It’s a proven fact.” Steve’s ears were a bit red but he wasn’t backing down. “I don’t know what else they could come away with.”   
  
“Oh, I don’t know. They might learn some new vocabulary, Sailor...”   
  
“I was a soldier. I grew up in an orphange in Brooklyn. Why does it always shock people that I know some profanity?”   
  
“I don’t think it’s the knowledge of it that shocks people. It’s your unexpected creativity with it that gets them, I think. And total lack of concern for anatomical correctness in the middle of sex.”   
  
Steve bent and kissed her right beneath her ear, a little spot she’d inadvertently given away just a few weeks ago, and her knees went weak and her center went liquid. “I want to do things to you that would really shock the crowd out there,” Steve muttered, his hands drifting down her body to cup her curves, sliding his hands around her ass, and then between her legs.   
  
“Steve... I....” His finger slipped over her clit, over her pants. It wasn’t nearly enough contact, but then it was just enough to turn her all the way on. “Fuck.”  
  
“Not yet.”   
  
“And we uh... we really shouldn’t. Here.”   
  
“Then let’s get out of here,” Steve said. “Walk in front of me, and walk fast.”   
  
Darcy giggled all the way out of the building.  
  
**  
  
There was really nothing more that could be done. All the precautions they could possibly take had been taken. All the tests had come back with tentatively optimistic results. Tony looked up from his notes and realized it was getting late. Late enough that it was probably impolite to dial his assistant.   
  
But he did anyway. Over and over until she picked up.  
  
“Darcy?”   
  
“I swear to _God above_ , you have no patience in combination with the worst timing of anyone I have ever known.”   
  
“I’m sorry to disturb you during what was clearly mid-orgasm, but tell lover-boy we’re going to give restoring his best friend to factory default tomorrow morning at oh-eight-hundred. He can be there. If he wants.”   
  
And Tony hung up.

**Author's Note:**

> Be sure to follow me on MY Tumblr! I want some new friends! chi-stories.tumblr.com


End file.
